Déjà vu
by labyrinths
Summary: Twenty years after their final adventures, Elizabeth meets again with Jack Sparrow.


**- Déjà vu -**

_Note: I do not own these characters. Any comments are very much appreciated. This is a one shot story (Unless I'm a forced and convinced by a great number of reviewers plying me with rum otherwise)._

Jack Sparrow was telling the story of how one time he had been taken hostage by a group of irascible, flesh-eating mermaids intent on sacrificing him to their pagan deity. All the men in the tavern stared at him in awe. Elizabeth, pausing to listen to him as she made her way towards his table, could only smirk.

Most of Jack's tales were liberally sprinkled with lies, padded with half-truths and in the case of this particular story she had heard the real version from the lips of Jack himself on one occasion. She recalled how he had laughed, entertaining her with funny anecdotes; every once in a while tangling his long fingers in her hair.

She felt a strong sense of déjà vu, and the fact that the pirate was a liar and a scoundrel and his hair had turned silver with age did not stop her heart from taking a rather annoying leap.

She frowned, muttering to herself about acting her age. She was after all over forty and beyond such childish giddiness.

Jack had just finished his narrative and the men were scattering from his table. She approached him with firm determination. The few onlookers that remained dived away, perhaps sensing that an irritated looking woman heading towards Jack Sparrow was a bad omen.

"Jack Sparrow, I demand to know where my son is," she said because it was what she had come to say and because she knew no polite way to utter a hello after twenty long years.

"Lizzie!" he said as he clapped his hands in mirth. "I was wondering when you'd show up."

He flashed her a smile. The wrinkles and lines around his eyes certainly created a different Jack, but the smile was the same wicked grin she had loved and hated. Elizabeth pulled a chair and sat down.

"Is he here?" Elizabeth glanced around suspiciously. "Where have you hidden him?"

"I have not hidden him."

"Where is he then?"

Jack shrugged. "Sampling the many charms of Tortuga I suppose."

"Liam is at a brothel!"

"I thought he might be playing cards but there you go with your dirty mind. Although I always did like your dirty side, Lizzie."

"Mrs. Turner," she said, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"Aye, Mrs. Turner. Honestly I do not know where the lad is although during our short conversation he alluded to Madagascar."

"Thank you then and goodbye."

Elizabeth jumped up from her seat but Jack motioned for her to sit down again.

"Where do you think you're going, love? You just arrived."

"To find Liam before he gets on a ship headed towards Madagascar."

"Most likely he's already on his way there and it's late to be wandering around the docks by yourself. You are by yourself, are you not?"

She nodded.

"Then no sense in you going alone and getting robbed."  
"I haven't been attacked so far and if I were I still remember how to use a sword."

She patted the blade hanging from her scabbard, her male outfit strangely familiar and comforting after two decades of dresses.

"Don't be silly. Have a drink with Jack and lets sing some songs. Its cold outside and your son is a grow man, off to find adventure."

"Off to get himself killed. He is eighteen."

"You weren't much older when you were cavorting around the Caribbean."

"I was not cavorting. I was saving the life of the man I loved."

"I remember."

"Liam does not belong in a filthy place like this. I'm taking him home and you are helping me find him. I am sure you know where he is, even if you try to lie about it."

"Yes, well I said I wouldn't tell. Not even to his ghastly mother."

"Then I'll have to knock on every door in Tortuga," she said with fierce determination as she stomped out.

Jack followed her, sputtering curses and obscenities.

"Lizbeth, stop, stop, stop!"

Once they were outside and a few paces from the tavern she did stop, but only to glare at him. She was startled to see Jack muttering under his breath, slowed down by a slight limp.

"What happened to you?" she asked, looking at his leg.

"I got old," he said, his face dark for a moment but then he seemed to brighten up, smiling again. "Although I did not get stupid. When I met that kid of yours Lizzie he looked every bit of William Turner but once we'd had a little time to chat I discovered he was all Elizabeth inside. He's got adventure in his blood. You'd be doing him a disservice by dragging him back home."

"Well of course you _would_ agree with scattered, idiotic ideas," she said. "The boy's listened to too many pirates stories and now he fancies himself one!"

"And who told him the stories in the first place?"

She bit her lip, her eyebrows furrowing as she shook her head dismissively. "Jack, there's not even any pirates left anymore!"

She did not understand what she had said until she caught the pained expression that flashed through his eyes and then he was looking away, towards the dark night sky.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her hand almost brushing his arm but he grunted something and took a step back.

"No, it's true. The age of pirates is gone. But the lure of the sea still calls to some men and they listen and go in search of strange shores. Your son's lived too long hanging from your skirts and listening to fairy tales. He wants to see the world."

It was true. She had tried to convince herself Liam was too young to leave home, to go on his own. After Will's death she had clung to the child, a woman drowning in her sorrow, and swore nothing bad would ever happen to Liam. She had tried to shield him from the world but the world had crept into their house, slipping through the cracks unbidden until one morning Liam was gone, a note left behind and his mother's jewellery ransacked to fund his voyage.

Pirate, she thought smiling and forcing away the tears threatening to moisten her eyes.

Jack was giving her a strange look that she could not identify, something between curiosity and mirth. Mirth overtook him and he busted out chuckling.

"So, love, you told your son many tales about dashing Captain Sparrow?"

"I told him tales about lots of pirates," she said, not wanting him to think she devoted her entire time to babbling about Jack.

"But more Jack than the rest?"

"Only because I knew you more intimately than the rest."

"Intimately, eh?"

He wiggled his eyebrows and Elizabeth slapped his arm. He let out a mild ouch.

"Don't hit me."

"Don't make things up and I will not hit you. There was never ever anything … intimate between us," she said. "I never even fancied you."

She was after all a proper, respectful widow and she was not going to let a common scoundrel insinuate that something indecent had taken place. They had only kissed twice and once it was because she was trying to distract him so the others could escape from the kraken. The second time was only because she was grateful he was alive and it had been a very, very short kiss.

Very short and she had absolutely never dwelt on the feeling of those kisses, Jack's lips against her own.

"Fancied me? Really? Because you know Liam said you were dreadfully in love with me all those years back when."

"What does he know? He wasn't there and he's got too much of an imagination anyway," she sighed suddenly, feeling sad once more. "It's because he wanted you to be his father."

"Come again?"

"When Will died Liam insisted that his real father was alive and that his name was Jack Sparrow. I don't know, it was some fantasy he made up. Somehow it helped him feel better," she shifted her arms, crossing them over her chest. "He'd always say how you were going to come and save him from his dreadful life and his dreadful duties and his dreadful mother."

"I'm sure she was mighty dreadful."

She did not glare at him this time. Instead she smiled. Jack smiled back and scratched his head. They stared at each other until he coughed uncomfortably.

"He's at the _Four Winds. _It's not much but the rooms are cheap. He's sailing on _Star of the North _tomorrow, first thing in morning."

She stood there in silence knowing she ought to thank him for the information and head towards that tavern. Then Liam and her would sail back home, back to the safety of London. But her feet seemed to have turned to stone and suddenly the idea of herding Liam and locking him in his room like she'd planned seemed rather silly. He was after all a man grown.

Elizabeth hesitated, not knowing what to say or do. She was about to open her mouth to speak when a loud clap of thunder made her jump. It was raining and she'd forgotten all about these sudden Caribbean storms. Her hat, seeming to have acquired a will of its own, was tossed away by the wind.

Jack jumped towards the stray hat and caught it, patting it down on her head.

She looked up at him, rivulets of water coming down his face. Elizabeth blinked.

"I think I should take refuge. It's dark and there might be thieves running around. Perhaps tomorrow in the daylight I can continue my search after a good night's sleep and a good lunch."

"That is most sensible."

It was his turn to be quiet. Finally Jack snapped his fingers as if a brilliant idea had suddenly occurred to him.

"You could come have dinner with me. I have a splendid house by the beach and delightful, mouth watering treats in my pantry," he paused. "Very well, it's a shack and the food will be horrid but the rum is very good. I promise, I'll be a perfect gentleman and I will not seduce you."

Elizabeth could not help it and she snickered.

"As if," she muttered.

"I'm not _that_ old Lizzie."

"And I know you too well for your tricks to work on me."

"Touché."

"Still, dinner and rum sounds very nice indeed Captain Sparrow."

The look on his face when Elizabeth agreed to accompany him was golden and worth more than any treasure she could hope to stumble upon. Jack offered her his arm and she took it, seizing the moment.


End file.
